Windows 10 Laptops To Feature Dedicated Cortana Button, Says Toshiba

Cortana, the digital personal assistant, is getting a permanent place in the laptop keyboard. Toshiba has announced that future laptops running Microsoft Windows 10 will have a dedicated Cortana button.

Jeff Barney, general manager and vice president of Toshiba’s American PC business unit, said the Cortana button will be located in the upper left area, near the function keys. This key will be made available in Toshiba’s entire range of Windows 10 PCs, according to PC World.

Cortana was rolled out as part of the Windows Phone platform to let the user interact with the operating system without the need to use the keyboard. By tapping and holding the handset’s search key, the digital personal assistant service can be activated. This can be used to respond to questions asked orally, set reminders, pilot to nearby locations and execute other activities with just voice commands. With the Windows 10 release nearing, Cortana will be part of PCs, phones, phablets and tablets.

PC World notes, however, that the ability of Cortana to “actively listen” has always been troublesome in phones and PCs. This is especially because some users are finding it hard to use the “Hey Cortana” spoken phrase to trigger the service. But manual triggering of Cortana has been a success.

The dedicated Cortana key, says Barney, will make sure “Cortana is listening when you want it to.” Toshiba has added high-fidelity array mics to the desktop PCs in order to enhance Cortana’s ability to interpret users' commands and requests.

The new Windows is to be rolled out on July 29, and the Windows 10 Mobile system will be released in the third quarter of 2015, says GSM Arena.